Karnataka: Green group plants away for a few forests more

The Green Saviours group also has a nursery with around 5,000 saplings

Group with green thumb follows Miyawaki method to set up 4 mini-forests in Belagavi

Mini-forests are coming up everywhere in Belagavi -- all thanks to efforts of a group that has been getting together every Sunday for four hours, planting and maintaining trees. The group Green Saviours has completed 139 consecutive Sundays of work and set up four mini-forests.

The team follows the Miyawaki method – named after Japanese botanist and plant ecology expert Akira Miyawaki -- a revolutionary technique of creating forests in 20 years, which otherwise would take a century to grow to a certain denseness worthy of being called forests. The team has now set up a unique nursery.

Sameer Majli, founder and co-ordinator of Green Saviours, told BM, "We started a nursery primarily because we needed consistent supply of sapling varieties. We need sufficient sapling stock. We have shifted around 5,000 saplings- some made by us, some donated by Basavaraj Konnur of Vruksha Kranti, Dharwad, and some that we had purchased. The entire stock of 20 species
has been shifted into a space provided by builder Sathish Naik. We have gone into seed procurement and will start making saplings
in January as the current weather condition is cold and not conducive.”

Sameer said the idea is to have in house stock of saplings and to shift from bags to pots- because bags generate lot of plastic waste. “We are considering using biodegradable bags or pots that can be reused for 8-10 cycles. The nursery space is about 4,500 sq ft and we feel that we may soon run short of space and therefore are making arrangements for another nursery.”

"The team is keen on exploring harvesting seeds on their own rather than going in for purchase of seeds so that they can have greater viability in terms of germination and sapling development. They would be soon inviting people to collect seeds and pass them to the Green Saviours from native trees that have seeds in the neighbourhood," said Jaideep Lengade, who heads Logistics and Material Supplies section, for Green Saviours.

The next target is the 150th drive - where more than 5,000 trees will be planted - on February 17 to create another mini forest. The maximum number of trees we have planted so far is 3,300 at Hanji Farms

–Sameer Majli, founder, Green Saviours

“The Miyawaki method has given fantastic results and the four mini forests are doing well. We have secured quite a few places around to see how best we can make the watering arrangements. It was a big surprise when Arun Gholse- a neighbour next door came forward to offer water supply for the nursery,” said Sameer.

The next target is the 150th drive- where more than 5,000 trees will be planted - on February 17 to create another mini forest. The maximum trees planted so far are 3,300 at Hanji Farms. This has grown into a eco-system with birds, snakes and insects. "The Hanji Brothers were so happy that they have decided to give us another patch of their property. The growth of secondaries where in birds or wind carry seeds into the plot and these develop into trees is also encouraging at the site," he said.

The survival rate of saplings has been 60-70 per cent. The team has 50 people volunteering every Sunday and whenever there are larger plantations, volunteers from social organisations, schools and colleges also join in.

Green Saviours, which was set up in 2016, recently secured its first corporate sponsorship as CSR funding from Euro Monitor, Bengaluru.